Geospatial and field-based techniques for physical geography and environmental change

This dissertation has primarily been an exercise in surveying interdisciplinary opportunities for further research within the doctoral program's overarching mandate of Geospatial and Environmental Analysis. To this end I have dedicated my efforts to the investigation of topics and themes that are relevant to my three specializations: physical geography, biogeography, and geospatial science. I share these efforts in the three following chapters, one of which is already published (Chapter 2), and the other two presented as manuscripts suitable for publication. These themes include historical and present hydrological patterns and drivers, hurricane disturbance of coastal forest, and evaluation of a Wisconsin geosite as a possible candidate for UNESCO Geopark designation. I chose study areas located in the eastern United States, including Appalachia, the Gulf Coast, and the Great Lakes region. Every chapter's work has been supported by an interdisciplinary array of methods with which I have striven to generate high-quality research from excitingly novel perspectives. All of my research has been pursued, and each resultant manuscript has been crafted, using methods and techniques from remote sensing and GIS including in-person fieldwork, smartphonesupported geolocation and photodocumentation, pattern analysis, statistical rigor, and indepth review and citation of extant literature. This research was carried out with deliberately minimal budgets that help offset costs of transportation and labor. I offer this dissertation as the ultimate fruits of my labor while here at Virginia Tech, composed of three interrelated yet reasonably stand-alone manuscript chapters that in turn more specifically address questions within the broader fields of biogeomorphology, dendrotempestology, and finally the geohumanities. Chapter 2 was published in an open-source peer-reviewed journal (Land, 2021: https://doi.org/10.3390/land10121333). My coauthors and I intend to publish the remaining two chapters in peer-reviewed journals. Therefore each manuscript herein provides its own Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, and References sections as set forth in the Table of Contents. Chapter 2 is a recently published study of historical beaver activity and hydrological patterns at the rare and imperiled Cranberry Glades Botanical Area, a high-elevation peatland in the Allegheny highlands of West Virginia. We used Lidar and Geomorphon analysis to reconstruct shifting patterns of surface hydrology associated with Beaver ponds and dams over the past three decades. Beavers play a large role in the formation and maintenance of peatland conditions and our work provides a novel method (geomorphons) for monitoring beaver activity into the future. In Chapter 3, we take advantage of wind-damaged leaning pine trees to reconstruct characteristics of landfalling Hurricane Sally (2020) along the Gulf coast of Florida/Alabama (USA). We employed a smartphone to measure and record the direction of lean on 556 pine trees in five sites in the eyewall-struck region. Using geometric analysis, we were able to locate the geographic center of the storm and the position and size of the area of highest speed winds in Sally's eyewall. We validated our results with independent data from official sources and found that our simple field-based analysis was surprisingly accurate. We think that our low-cost and relatively low-tech approach may be useful to inform hindcasts, provide quality input to models of future stand-damaging events, and even to enhance teaching and outreach efforts. Chapter 4 represents research aimed at producing an inventory and assessment of the Baraboo Hills in south-central Wisconsin (USA) as a potential candidate for a UNESCO Geopark. The basis for designation is a geographical area that contains geological heritage of international significance, but such a park's fuller mission according to its website is to "explore, develop and celebrate the links between that geological heritage and all other aspects of the area's natural, cultural and intangible heritages." We followed a published method, including field study, to inventory and assess 62 sites in and around the Hills for their scientific, educational, and touristic merit, and their risk of degradation. We provide these data and through spatial analysis, a proposed perimeter of the area that would benefit from unified protection.